Saturday, October 23, 2004

In the morning we shall vote just after breakfast on the way to work, it'll get
it out of the way and we won't have to worry about that for the next two years.

At ten or so in the morning, it's best to check the Drudge Report. Ol' Mattie
has access to the various exit polls and has never sighned the secrecy
agreement, so we'll know all about how the turnout is and whether to be joyous
or depressed the rest of the day.

I think that both Ras and Zogby are polling all the way to the end, which means
that noon we get to see whether they're going to be off or not.

After lunch, it's best to check Drudge again and then the various blogs who may
have managed to get their hands on some of the exit poll data. We should know
if it's going to be close or not by then either way.

Then there's dinner.

As we chow down to our tasty and nutritious meal, we get our first results.
Both Kentucky and Indiana will go for Bush. We don't care as neither of these
have EVER been swing states and the Republicans will be happy with Bush 19
Kerry 0.

We then start channel surfing. The pundits, who have all the secret data, will
dance around the fact they know who's already won in many of the states and lie
through their teeth in order to seem exited.

Seven PM: Seven more states. Now we'll know if this is going to truly be a
blowout or a squeaker:
Bush 46 Kerry 7. Plus Ohio. If they call Ohio for Kerry, it's going to be a
very long night, if Bush, we might as well go to sleep early.

Seven thirty: Bush 66 Kerry 7. Democrats are looking at Ohio with baited
breath, Bush has a substantial lead in the popular vote, which isn't shown much
on any of the channels.

Eight: Bush 150 Kerry 113. Ohio is still neck and neck and nobody's going to
call Florida this early. If they call Florida for either candidate, it may not
be over, but the legions of lawyers are going to be put on alert.

eight thirty: Arkansas goes for Bush and every Democrat goes "Damn!" under his
or her breath.

Nine: Bush 185 Kerry 165. Now things begin to get exiting. Ohio has Kerry ahead
by just under two thousand and Bush is ahead in Florida by slightly more than
he won it the last time. Minnestoa is going Kerry's way but not enough to get
it called. Bush is still substantially ahead in the popular vote, and this is
because he's blowing Kerry away in many of the red states. Wisconsin is
see-sawing between Bush and Kerry.

Ten: Bush 202 Kerry 172 The Republicans are beginning to look a bit worried, as
Kerry's lead in Ohio begins to cease being miniscule. Kerry's passed Bush in
Florida, but not by much,

Ten thirty: Bush wins Iowa. Democrats look awful until at around a quarter to
eleven, Ohio is given to Kerry. The score Bush 209 Kerry 192

Eleven: Bush 216 Kerry 256. Soon after, Kerry wins wisconsin, giving Kerry 266
and Florida is called around 11:30, giving Kerry a majority of 288 to Bush's
219. Kerry is still about a million votes behind Bush and the commentators are
discussing what the hell is going on. Kerry didn't win most of his states by
that much and the Bush people are claiming fraud. But Bush was getting 70% of
the vote in some of the red states...Time to go to bed...for the post mortems
can wait until the morning....

Friday, October 01, 2004

Every year there are hundreds of film festivals, but there are four that stand out above the others: Sundance, Cannes, Venice and Toronto. These are the ones that make headlines above and beyond the cities they’re in and while New York has some great stuff and Telluride is cozy, the big four made headlines throughout the world.

Toronto, the jewel of Canada, is last of the big four. There are literally hundreds of films being screened during the ten days of the festival and except for a few local critics who’ve been viewing a couple entries a day for months, it’s impossible to see anywhere near anything.

So, if you’re lucky enough to live in NY or LA, you can get to see maybe five or ten before you leave home. What I do is leave a couple of days early and have dinner with my friend Kevin and his wife Lucy before taking in a few of the advanced screenings.

The last of the advanced screenings are at the National Film Board screening room down by where the local TV/Radio conglomerate is having it’s annual party for the festival, and as usual, I’m not invited. But then I’m not going to any of the parties this year. There’s nothing but movies movies and more movies. It’s either one or the other. You can’t do both.

So I head south from my ratty hotel on Church and Dundas streets [right next to the subway], and head over to the venue. It’s my fifth year and doing this is like putting on an old glove, except that I stay at a different hotel every year.

So with that "same as it ever was" attitude I bring with me I try to find where the entrance to the venue is this year. For some reason they’ve closed the regular entrance, and after a bit of looking, I find a sign. So far so good.

Then, at last, we get in our seats and look around for familier faces. There’s a few and we greet each other and promise to gossip when the first film is over…

Our first flick of the festival is Hari Om an Indian story of a girl left behind (Camille Natta) and her meeting the eponymous rickshaw driver(Vijay Raaz), who happens to be on the run. So she decides to follow her boyfriend(Jean Marie Lamour) to the next stop on the train and somehow, our hero finds our heroine at the side of the road [the bus had a flat of course], the two of them take the rickshaw [a motorcycle kind of thing, not a seat with wheels powered by a guy running] and go across India where they meet several interesting people and sort of fall in love before our hero has to start a worker's rebellion and the boyfriend .

It’s actually not that bad…

Our second selection is Forest for the Trees which is a sad tale of a reletively nice person(Eva Löbow) who’s looking to start her life over. Unfortunately, she makes a botch of it and spends her life lonelier than ever. It’s depressing as hell, but Löbow is a brilliant actress and is cute as a button and is terrific as the protagonist. I'm not sure if it's worth the bucks, and I don't think it's going to come to the arthouse anytime soon, so don't sweat it.

Our third selection for the day is an exercise in Weirdness for Weirdness' sake. Innocence is about a bizarre prison/ballet school for a select group of little girls who enter the place in a coffin and are told weird stories about kids who try to escape and are turned into old hags who must serve the girls forever and the like. The whole thing is very strange and not very effecting, and the ending is particularly dissapointing...we were hoping for more murders....bummer.

The discovery of the day is that the daypasses don't work until 9:30 which makes them almost useless, me having to get to at least half a dozen places in the early morning...%^&*

So the next day, we head up to the Transit authority to figure out what to do with the extra day pass, we argue and a compromise is reached. That being done we head south to the NFB and see what’s apparently the only film of the day:

One of the themes this year is the Rwandan genocide of 1994. There are a number of films on the subject and the first I've seen is Shake Hands with the Devil which is about Canadian General Roméo Dallier, who was the head of the UN peacekeepers in that godforsaken place when the lord forsook it a decade ago.

He returned for a confrence and the filmmaker Peter Raymont decided to tag along, and the results are both infuriating and heartbreaking. One tends to wonder if the wanten murder of between 800,000 and a million people killed mostly with machettés could have been prevented, and if Dallier could have done more in that direction. But the simple fact is that while it probably could have and he couldn't.

There was plenty of blame to go around, could the French told the perpetrators to not go there? Should the UN have gone to war when there were two thousand UN troops briefly there to get foreign nationals out? One could go on for months on this topic.

But the simple fact is nobody did a damn thing and then nobody did anything after that. What did happen is that Dallaier was kicking himself about it ever since.

This film is especially important when we see what's going on in Durfar, Sudan.

The reason nobody did anything was simple, by the way. Look at how Bush was treated over Iraq...in other words the world would go nuts blaming the rescuers and nobody wants that.…

Finally, we head up to the press office and get our credentials. There were problems over the summer as none of the hotels in the area wanted to deal with the press and refused to house the thing, so they had to rent an office in the Cumberland mall, which turned out to be extremely convenient. They had wireless internet, and the underground tunnels made life much easier for me and all involved.

I always knew that there were tunnels underneath Bloor street, where the main venue for press screenings were, but I’ve never had to actually use them before. This year is different. One just gets off the subway and then goes through a series of tunnels and violá, you’re there, and you don’t have to dodge traffic. This would be routine for most of the next eight days.

The routine was for the most part the same. Five to seven screenings a day, one party and one of the panels, actually an interview with Terry Gilliam that was called misleadingly called a master class, but more on that later.

The venues were primarily at the Variety multiplex, which for hundreds of us critics was our home away from home. There are seven large screening rooms and three smaller ones, which made travelling between them rather easy…that is unless one discovered that you had to go over to the Cumberland theater about four blocks away, then you could either dodge traffic or use the tunnels to wind up across the street and run like hell, something I did rather frequently during my time up there.

But Toronto is famous for scheduling conflicts, and this year was no exception, as one friend told me "You don’t see what you want to in Toronto, you see what you can."
The way to deal with conflicts is to find out where the public screenings are and if it’s possible to get on the "rush line." I tried that three times and managed to get in twice.

For the public screenings, getting there’s a bit more tricky. There’s the Ryerson theater at the college of the same name about a half a mile from the Variety multiplex. When I was there, they had a false alarm and we had to wait out in the courtyard for almost a half hour. Nothing like that happened at the Paramount Googleplex, which was across the street from the NFB office and has some really good seats. Finally, there’s the Famous Players screening room, which is next door to the Cumberland inside a dank basement.

Thus was the routine for the great Sitzfleich marathon, my personal best from last year is five: will I manage to break the record?

We wake up sometime around a quarter of seven and do the normal morning ablutions, then we take the subway up to Bloor street where we head to one of the local cafes (either Starbucks, Timothy's or some other trendoid place) before heading over to the Variety multiplex in where one takes one's seat for the first screening of the day, which is about 8:30 AM, which is usually too early to go to the movies but this is Toronto…

Today, we begin with James Toback's When Will I Be Loved?:

So what are we to make of this female revenge fantasy? When we first meet Vera (Neve Campbell), she’s doing a walking job interview with a weird professor of African studies(James Toback), while her boyfriend Ford (Frederick Weller) is lying his way through a whole bunch of silly situations. Ford, it seems is a two-bit hustler with delusions of grandeur.

These delusions are fed by the fact that we see him doing three models at once in the middle of central park, and the fact that when he accosts the zillionaire Italian Count Tommasso Lupo(Dominc Chianese), the Count responds positively. What is going on?

What’s going on is that the Count has fallen in lust with Vera and Ford has decided to pimp her our for a hundred thousand dollars. Will Vera do it?
Do we care?

The answer is ambiguous. We don’t like any of these characters. They’re mean and unappealing. On the other hand, Toback’s writing is very funny and the dialogue is something that’ll keep you in your seat. In fact it’s rather fun to watch.

We then head off to pick up the morning's mail, which contains the same stuff as yesterday's mail. Which is very strange indeed....I picked it up yesterday! Then I discover that I missed the next film, so I wander into the nearest screening room and find a thing called "Tarnation" which is the cheapest film ever to raise it's head here in Toronto. It's a cinematic autobiography of Jonathan Caoette a minor actor who's never hit it big. He used a mac and various generations of video. It's actually quite interesting and trippy in parts...next we do lunch, which means one of Toronto's famous hot dogs before going to our next selection: a thing called Whiskey Romeo Zulu....

Around five or six years ago, a Argentine airliner crashed, killing quite a few people. It seems that for a number of years a pilot named Enrique Piñero had been trying to call attention to the problems the airline in question was having and, like most whistleblowers, was first grounded and then forced to resign.

His revenge was twofold: First he gave all the information he had to the authorities. Then, he became a movie star, and after a number of years was famous enough to get his side of the story made into a movie written, directed and starring himself, a pretty nifty trick if you think about it.

What’s even niftier is that Piñero has made a truly great film, He’s a fine actor, the directing is even better and the writing is clear, crisp and direct. The other actors, as the prosecuter and as the childhood friend who becomes his confidant and then turns on him, are even better.

Now that he has this whole thing out of his system, maybe he can now go on and become the auteur he has the talent to become.

Next is a gem called Private:"

Now one can’t really trust what the Europeans have to say on the subject of the Middle East Crisis, they’ve long ago given their support to the Palestinians in their effort to drive the Jews into the sea. But sometimes we have an interesting take on the subject.

Fighting terrorism near it’s border with the territories, a small contingent of Israeli soldiers is assigned to take over a strategically placed house, and orders the family out. The problem is that said family won’t leave, and this leads to a standoff of sorts, with the Israelis taking the second floor and the Palestinians keeping the first. It’s sympathetic to the Palestinians, of course, the family is the focus of the film, but we get to see the Israelis too and they’re also shown in a somewhat sympathetic light as one of the daughters of the family hides in the closet and observes them in their day to day activities.

It was surprisingly even-handed. It’s clear that writer/director Savario Constanzo gave this lots of thought and is even slightly pro-Israeli. (otherwise it wouldn't have played there and have some of the Jewish state's heart-throbs as the soldiers).

And so it goes on and on, getting up early in the morning and coming home around nine or so dead on my feet…..

[stick reviews in here-eric l.]

So we managed to get a total of 45 films in all told and a personal best of seven in one day. The films ranged from Animated cartoons for children [Shark Tale] to hard core gay porn [the Raspberry Reich]. I’m stoked for next year.

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

Well, it's nine forty in the pee em and we've been seeing five films a day for the past week, six a couple of days and we're going home tomarrow morning. I'll dump a whole bunch of reviews over the weekend and then possibly end this thing.

Monday, September 13, 2004

Which is why I haven't had enough time to post reviews and stuff. When not waiting in line or having a quick bite to eat, there've been lots of movies:

Innocence (2004/I)
Written and Directed
by Mamoru Oshii

The first "Ghost in the Shell" had a message. Machines are people too. There should be equal rights for software. It had a highly inflated reputation, so of course there would be a sequel, but TEN years? I guess they had to take that long to find a decent story. Unfortunately, they didn’t.

Okay. It’s 2039. A multinational corporation has been giving out robotic sex doll prototypes to select major clients, but the things seem to have thought they were being raped as they promptly murdered their owners and self destructed, leaving the cryptic message "help me."

Section 9 Department Chief Aramaki (voice of Tamio Ôki) brings in two of his top "men" to investigate: Bateau (voice ofAkio Ôtsuka), the dog-loving cyborg from the previous film is called in to investigate, and is given a mostly human partner named Togusa (voice of Kôichi Yamadera). They go off, talk philosophy, interview a few people and shoot up some gangsters for little or no reason. Then they go to a mysterious island where they know the mysterious Mr. Kim (voice of Naoto Takenaka) is hiding out.

What happens next is both boring and tedious. The ending doesn’t make too much sense and we don’t really know if it was worth the effort to sit through the thing. It certainly wasn’t worth the effort to pay the money to get in [and I got in for free].

HOTEL RWANDA

Written, ,Directed and
Produced by Terry George

In 1994, upwards of 800 thousand people were murdered in a period of six weeks because of their ethnicity. The world watched but didn’t try to stop it. The reason was that the UN isn’t empowered to interfere in the internal affairs of any country except that of Israel, which it doesn’t either, but likes to try to because it’s a way to get away with being hypocritical, but that’s another story. In the 1994 genocide, there were heroes as well as villains, and this is the tale of the former, and how he saved thousands.

Paul (Don Cheadle) and Tatiana Rusesabagina(Sophie Okonedo) are an upper middle class couple living in Kigali, the capitol of Rwanda. He works at a luxury hotel, and lives a pretty good life for anywhere in the World. The problem is that he’s a Hutu and she’s a Tutsi, and that’s sort of like a German and a Jew living together in 1934 Berlin.

Paul knows about the ethnic problems of his country. There’d been a genocidal attack on the Tutsis in neighboring Burundi a few years before, and the Rwandan version of the Nazis, the Interhamwe had been threatening to rampage for quite a while. The murder of the President begins a series of events that starts when Paul arrives home and finds the entire neighborhood quivering in his den. By bribing Interhamwe officers to save not only his family, but his neighbors as well. He begs, borrows and steals to save the innocent on the way to his place of business, which soon becomes a place of refuge.

The second in command of the UN Peacekeepers (Nick Nolte) is of no help and is sick about it. Some brave journalists, notably the one played by Joaquin Phoenix, try to get the story out, but soon the various armies of the west arrive and much to the disgust of the viewer only pick up the whites and take them home. Paul is left to lead the staff and "guests" in their fight to keep the insanity that killed nearly a million people with machetes and pistols in six weeks outside the gates.

It’s much like an African "Shindler’s List" and is just as uplifting. This is, as far as we know, the first major cinematic take on the subject and the fact that it has everything a good Hollywood movie should have should serve as a reminder of man’s inhumanity to man. It’s one of the best movies of the year. See it.

Saturday, September 11, 2004

Okay, a stupid question: Why has no one ever made a movie version of "Plato’s Republic?" Because philosophy is unfilmable, that’s why. Okay, it’s not unfilmable. "My Dinner With André" is just two guys talking about life and philosophy and it’s works rather well, but in general philosophical dialogues tend to be boring as hell [Don’t believe me, check out "Mindwalk" with Sam Waterston and Isabella Roselini].

Which is why the guy who did "Three Kings" and "Flirting With Disaster" decided to give it a try as a slapstick comedy. Maybe that would work?

Nah!!!!

Okay, eco-activist Albert Markovski (Jason Schwartzman) has had a number of close encounters with an African immigrant and thinks that there’s something mystical about it, so he goes to two existential detectives named Bernard and Vivian Jaffe (Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin) and…what? You don’t know what an existential detective is? Come to think of it neither does anyone else. What one seems to be is a philosopher who sniffs out the meaning of existence for the customer. So Albert is analyzed by Bernard and investigated by Vivian.

However, there are complications: Jason’s old pal and rival Brad Stand (Jude Law) who is also a member of the eco-alliance, is an executive for Huckabees, a fictionalized version of Wal-Mart. Brad has everything, including a live-in relationship with Dawn Campbell (Naomi Watts), the Huckabees’ official spokesmodel. All well and good, but where does disgruntled fireman Tommy Corn (Mark Wahlberg) and what about that evil French nihilist Caterine Vauban (Isabelle Huppert)? Why does she come in out of left field to menace the Jaffees and seduce Albert?

Does this make any sense? Does the fact that Shenia Twain, the rightful queen of Canada, has a cameo as herself make the whole thing comprehensible? Noooooooooooooooo!

However is actually a fun movie to watch and is almost educational. Jude Law gives a splendid performance and the fact that it’s an astoundingly weird movie only adds to it’s entertainment value.

Beyond The Sea

Directed by
Kevin Spacey

I guess it was the success of the film version "Chicago" and "Moulin Rouge," because the musical’s comeback is gaining speed, if not force. However this doesn’t mean that this is all to the good. There is nothing wrong with this biopic of singer Bobby Darrin, but the structure is exactly the same as the recent "De Lovely" and whiff of plagerism, whether or not it’s deserved—and it probably isn’t, is clearly present in the atmosphere

Like "De Lovely" the plot is a show-within-a-show. . Bobby Darin(Kevin Spacey) is singing in what appears to be a nightclub when he sees his younger self(William Ullrich) staring out at him from the wings, unnerved, and this is where it gets slightly different, he shuts everything down and we see this for what it is.

The two versions of Bobby Cassotto/Darrin begin to argue with each other about the nature of their common life, especially where the beginning of the film should be. With the old deceit mingled with the new, we then go back to the beginning, to Brooklyn, in the home of Polly Cassotto (Brenda Blethyn) our hero’s supposed mother, his much older sister Nina (Caroline Aaron) and her husband Charlie (Bob Hoskins). He becomes sick and is loveingly tought music by Polly. He goes off with his friends Steve Blauner (John Goodman) and Dick Behrke (Peter Cincotti), and goes off to counquer the world of show biz…which he does of course. They wouldn’t make a film about a complete and utter failure, don’tcha know.

One thing that’s jarring are the "fantasy sequences" in which people, like musicals of old, just break out into song and dance. The younger Bobby complains about it to the older version and it has to be explained. The same thing happened in "De-Lovely" less than six months ago. I guess it’s because it’s a revival of a forgotten technique and it’s jarring in current cinema. It works, especially when we see Bobby courting his future wife, the notoriously virginal Sandra Dee(Kate Bosworth).

The marriage has it’s ups and downs, and Bosworth manages to be more than the wallpaper (she’s especially good in the scene where she confronts her mother(Greta Scacchi) over the nuptials). But it’s Spacey and his reaction to his character’s fading career that is most interesting. Darin managed to get to the very top of his profession but only rather briefly, and his attempts to cope with the downside of his career are rather poingent.

Also is his reaction to the mystery of his birth, but for that you’ll have to see the film.

Not a great film, but decent.

The Merchant of Venice

Written and Directed
By Michael Radford

Of the many plays in the Shakespeare canon, "The Merchant of Venice" stands out as the most unacceptable in our modern view. The reason is of course, the blatant antisemitism of the piece. Shylock is Shylock and thus the tragic villain. The bard makes him as sympathetic as possible, even though the disgusting stink of prejudice is in each and every frame. This is Shakespeare’s fault, not adapter/director Michael Radford, who does a really good job of bringing this to the screen. Other than that, it’s not one of the Bard’s better works…

It’s Venice: 1598. Young lord Bassanio(Joseph Fiennes) has heard a rumor about an extremely rich orphan named Portia(Lynn Collins) who is of age, and according to her father’s will has to marry the man who chooses the right box. So, being broke, he asks his old pal Antonio(Jeremy Irons) for enough money to put on a big enough show to get into the room with the boxes in order to play the game and win the big prize.

Antonio agrees. The only problem is that he’s currently broke as well. So he goes to Shylock(Al Pacino), the immortal Jewish loan shark, and asks him for the 16th century equivalent of a hundred thousand bucks. Shylock, having been spit on just the other week by the very same Antonio. This being the 16th century and all, vicious anti-Semitism is just normal and the fact that a Jew would have his FEELINGS HURT by being spat upon or thrown off a bridge never managed to cross anyone’s mind…except maybe Bill Shakespeare.

Antonio goes out to make the borrow the money and then makes the deal instead of interest, if he defaults on the loan he’d give Shylock the famous pound of flesh we’ve all heard about. Meanwhile Shylock’s daughter Jessica(Zuleikha Robinson) steals a couple of thou and runs off with a christian named Leonardo(Tony Schiena). We know that Shylock must be EVIL because his daughter wouldn’t do a thing like that to her own papa, right?

Pacino first did this on Broadway a few years back and was greeted with great acclaim. The acting is wonderful and the pathos he and Irons give to the film make the light comedy of the wooing of Portia all the more silly. The ending is rather ingenious, and Portia is the first lady lawyer in the history of literature. All in all one of the better Shakespeare adaptaions.

The best so far: Hotel Rwanda,of which I'll tell more, the Worst: The Rasberry Reich,hard core gay pornography of which I won't.

Friday, September 10, 2004

The big events at the festival are the galas, the first big one was Being Julia directed by István Szabó

Back in the 1930s, Somerset Maughmam wrote a novel called "Theater" and it was nasty little trifles that are remembered fondly by some and forgotten by most, but are rediscovered every now and again. Thus it is with this:

Julia Lambert(Annette Bening) is an actress, ON THE STAGE, DAH-LING, and she’s getting a bit bored.She wants her impresario husband (Jeremy Irons) to let her go on vacation. But he doesn’t want to do it because who would take her place? But then there’s other fish to fry, after all, and soon she’s having an affair with a peachy young thing named Tom(Shaun Evans) and this seems to do the trick. But Tom, being a man after all, quickly tires of being "kept" and soon he’s going out with Avis(Lucy Punch), who has lots of talent, not only in bed, and soon she’s to star in Julia’s next production.

Oh the fun, oh the joy while we see Somerset Maghman’s brain work up how Julia decides to wreak her revenge on Tom and Avis.

The film is a bit on the silly side, and I’m not too sure how likeable Julia’s character is. The only genuinely sympathetic of the principles is Avis, who is only doing what any young actress would do in her situation.

It’s all very nice, in a "Masterpiece Theater"/Merchant-Ivory kind of way, but this isn’t as great as the advertising makes it out to be.

So today the festival begins and we head off into the usual groove that we'll generally follow for the rest of the week:

We wake up sometime around a quarter of seven and do the normal morning ablutions, then we take the subway up to Bloor street where we head to one of the local cafes (either Starbucks, Timothy's or some other trendoid place) before heading over to the Variety multiplex in where one takes one's seat for the first screening of the day, which is about 8:30 AM, which is usually too early to go to the movies but this is special.

Today, we begin with James Toback's When Will I Be Loved?:

So what are we to make of this female revenge fantasy? When we first meet Vera (Neve Campbell), she’s doing a walking job interview with a weird professor of African studies(James Toback), while her boyfriend Ford (Frederick Weller) is lying his way through a whole bunch of silly situations. Ford, it seems is a two-bit hustler with delusions of grandeur.

These delusions are fed by the fact that we see him doing three models at once in the middle of central park, and the fact that when he accosts the zillionaire Italian Count Tommasso Lupo(Dominc Chianese), the Count responds positively. What is going on?

What’s going on is that the Count has fallen in lust with Vera and Ford has decided to pimp her our for a hundred thousand dollars. Will Vera do it?
Do we care?

The answer is ambiguous. We don’t like any of these characters. They’re mean and unappealing. On the other hand, Toback’s writing is very funny and the dialogue is something that’ll keep you in your seat. In fact it’s rather fun to watch.

We then head off to pick up the morning's mail, which contains the same stuff as yesterday's mail. Which is very strange indeed....I picked it up yesterday! Then I discover that I missed the next film, so I wander into the nearest screening room and find a thing called "Tarnation" which is the cheapest film ever to raise it's head here in Toronto. It's a cinematic autobiography of Jonathan Caoette a minor actor who's never hit it big. He used a mac and various generations of video. It's actually quite interesting and trippy in parts...next we do lunch, which means one of Toronto's famous hot dogs before going to our next selection: a thing called Whiskey Romeo Zulu....

Around five or six years ago, a Argentine airliner crashed, killing quite a few people. It seems that for a number of years a pilot named Enrique Piñero had been trying to call attention to the problems the airline in question was having and, like most whistleblowers, was first grounded and then forced to resign.

His revenge was twofold: First he gave all the information he had to the authorities. Then, he became a movie star, and after a number of years was famous enough to get his side of the story made into a movie written, directed and starring himself, a pretty nifty trick if you think about it.

What’s even niftier is that Piñero has made a truly great film, He’s a fine actor, the directing is even better and the writing is clear, crisp and direct. The other actors, as the prosecuter and as the childhood friend who becomes his confidant and then turns on him, are even better.

Now that he has this whole thing out of his system, maybe he can now go on and become the auteur he has the talent to become.

Next is a gem called Private:"

Now one can’t really trust what the Europeans have to say on the subject of the Middle East Crisis, they’ve long ago given their support to the Palestinians in their effort to drive the Jews into the sea. But sometimes we have an interesting take on the subject.

Fighting terrorism near it’s border with the territories, a small contingent of Israeli soldiers is assigned to take over a strategically placed house, and orders the family out. The problem is that said family won’t leave, and this leads to a standoff of sorts, with the Israelis taking the second floor and the Palestinians keeping the first. It’s sympathetic to the Palestinians, of course, the family is the focus of the film, but we get to see the Israelis too and they’re also shown in a somewhat sympathetic light as one of the daughters of the family hides in the closet and observes them in their day to day activities.

It was surprisingly even-handed. It’s clear that writer/director Savario Constanzo gave this lots of thought and is even slightly pro-Israeli. (otherwise it wouldn't have played there and have some of the Jewish state's hearthrobs as the soldiers).

Thursday, September 09, 2004

So the first day of regular viewing has started. We've done four today ranging from a female revenge fantasy to Israeli occupaion of an inconveniant Palestinian house, to an Argentine plane crash. Some of them were pretty good.

Wednesday, September 08, 2004

One of the themes this year is the Rwandan genocide of 1994. There are a number of films on the subject and the first I've seen is Shake Hands with the Devil which is about Canadian General Roméo Dallier, who was the head of the UN peacekeepers in that godforsaken place when the lord forsook it a decade ago.

He returned for a confrence and the filmmaker Peter Raymont decided to tag along, and the results are both infuriating and heartbreaking. One tends to wonder if the wanten murder of between 800,000 and a million people killed mostly with machettés could have been prevented, and if Dallier could have done more in that direction. But the simple fact is that while it probably could have and he couldn't.

There was plenty of blame to go around, could the French told the perpetrators to not go there? Should the UN have gone to war when there were two thousand UN troops briefly there to get foreign nationals out? One could go on for months on this topic.

But the simple fact is nobody did a damn thing and then nobody did anything after that. What did happen is that Dallaier was kicking himself about it ever since.

This film is especially important when we see what's going on in Durfar, Sudan.

The reason nobody did anything was simple, by the way. Look at how Bush was treated over Iraq...in other words the world would go nuts blaming the rescuers and nobody wants that...

Our first flick of the festival is Hari Om an Indian story of a girl left behind (Camille Natta) and her meeting the eponymous rickshaw driver(Vijay Raaz), who happens to be on the run. So she decides to follow her boyfriend(Jean Marie Lamour) to the next stop on the train and somehow, our hero finds our heroine at the side of the road [the bus had a flat of course], the two of them take the rickshaw [a motorcycle kind of thing, not a seat with wheels powered by a guy running] and go across India where they meet several interesting people and sort of fall in love before our hero has to start a worker's rebellion and the boyfriend .

It’s actually not that bad…

Our second Selection is Forest for the Trees which is a sad tale of a reletively nice person(Eva Löbow) who’s looking to start her life over. Unfortunately, she makes a botch of it and spends her life lonelier than ever. It’s depressing as hell, but Löbow is a brilliant actress and is cute as a button and is terrific as the protagonist. I'm not sure if it's worth the bucks, and I don't think it's going to come to the arthouse anytime soon, so don't sweat it.

Our third selection for the day is an exercise in Weirdness for Weirdness' sake. Innocence is about a bizarre prison/ballet school for a select group of little girls who enter the place in a coffin and are told weird stories about kids who try to escape and are turned into old hags who must serve the girls forever and the like. The whole thing is very strange and not very effecting, and the ending is particularly dissapointing...we were hoping for more murders....bummer.

The discovery of the day is that the daypasses don't work until 9:30 which makes them almost useless, me having to get to at least half a dozen places in the early morning...%^&*

Tuesday, September 07, 2004

I’m not exactly sure what the schedule is. I’ve got to exchange those old bus tickets for new ones sometime this morning and find out where the screenings are. Usually they’re at the National Film Board building, but not every time, so one has to check.

The list of films this year isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. Oh, sure, there’s a few real winners on the list, but most of the stuff already reviewed by NOW, the local alternative weekly is on the mediocre side. But at this point I could be wrong and I usually am.

The ones I’m most looking forward to are the biggies. Stuff like "I [heart] Huckabees" or "Millions" which may be the big kiddie flick of the year. The horror flicks are rather obscure, and as to the rest…They’ve got the usual Canadian bias that’ll show lots of obscure films that’ll never see the light of day south of the border….

In the meantime, it’s cold and feels like It’s going to rain, which may be a good thing as the humidity is a killer….

Monday, September 06, 2004

So now we change gears and leave politics behind and start thinking about movies. But we can't for the most part as my poll addiction has yet to abate. I first caught this year's case in the spring during the primaries, the Canadian election helped it along (Them Canadians are fickle) and then there's the fun and games over the summer. Kerry seems to have been making a comeback of sorts and is back to being either even or slightly behind...but be that as it may...

The Toronto film festival begins on Wednesday and there are pre-screenings tomorrow, and for all intents and purposes is going to start then. I've seen a few films already, and most of them are rather good. If it weren't for the Republican invasion of the last week, I'd have already started to post reviews and such, but scheduling conflicts are the spice of life usually. Here are a couple:

P.S

Written and Directed
by Dylan Kidd

Louise Harrington (Laura Linney) is the admissions officer for the Columbia University art department. Her life isn’t that bad, pretty much the same as any sitcom achedemic you’d care to come across. She’s got a decent relationship with her ex husband Peter(Gabriel Byrne) her mother Lois Smith) and her old high school pal Missy (Marcia Gay Harden), who lives in California with her husband and two kids. Whom she doesn’t have all that great a relationship is with her brother Sammy(Paul Rudd) who’s gone from being a drug addict to a 12-step guru.

But this isn’t really about him. It’s about a recent BFA named F. Scott Feinstadt (Topher Grace), who’s sent an application for the Master’s program at Columbia.

Louise gets his application the last day that they’re due and suddenly remembers that this fellow has the exact same name as her and Missy’s old boyfriend who had died tragically over twenty years before. She calls him back and tells him he forgot to send in slides of his artwork and sets up an appointment. He shows up the late and is a spitting image of Long Dead Boyfriend. She takes him home to bed. Is there a lawsuit in the offing?

No.

But there is some of the funniest dialogue to hit the silver screen in quite a while.
That’s what saves this film. The words that come out of the people’s mouths range from the merely witty to downright hilarious, and when Linney and Grace are sitting next to each other blathering away this is as good as it gets, HOWEVER….

The sideplots are rather tedious. Peter’s confession as part of "Step 9" of the 12 step process is kind of dumb. The thing with Sammy is completely useless and detracts from the budding romance. Harden comes in as a human deus ex machina, arriving out of nowhere to get into bed with Scott, just to make sure that the guy hasn’t come back from the dead or anything.

This film is like the little girl with the curl, when it’s good it’s very yery good, and when it’s bad it’s horrid. Fortunately, it’s the former for most of the time.

Silver City

Directed, Written and
Edited by John Sayles

In the many years he’s been making films, auteur John Sayles has made dozens of films. Some have been great and others merely very good. He’s never done a bad one in his life.

I bet you thought I was gonna say "Until now." Fooled ya!!!

No. His winning streak goes on, and this is one of the better ones. This is what people like Michael Moore and Robert Greenwald WISH they could do.

GW Bush-clone 'Dickie' Pilager(Chris Cooper) is running for Governor of Colorado and he and his manager/Svengali Chuck Raven (Richard Dreyfuss) are shooting a commercial by a lake, when our hero casts his fishing pole and snags a dead body.

Dickie is innocent, but Raven thinks that someone might have dumped the body in the lake in order to sabotage the campaign, So he goes over to the office of a private investigator(Mary Kay Place) who’s worked for him before, and she send out her top assistant, one Danny O'Brien (Danny Huston), to go to these people and tell them that they’re being watched.

Now Danny used to be an investigative reporter, and he still has a nose for news. Who killed the poor fellow Dickie found in the lake? Ah, that is the question!

We follow Danny as he questions the suspects he’s been given: Is it the right wing nutcase radio talk show pundit(Miguel Ferrer)? The retired environmental activist(Ralph Waite), Dickie’s libertine Olympic-wannabe sister Madeleine (Daryl Hannah)? Or might it be someone we haven’t thought about, like mysterious indnustrialist and Piager backer Wes Benteen (Kris Kristofferson) or someone sneaking in illegal aliens into the country?

It’s all sorted out in the end, but along the way there are dozen of cameos which have little or nothing to do with the plot, but are interesting none the less.

On the other hand we don’t get much character development. Just who IS Dickie anyway? When the threads binding him and the corpse begin to break, why does Raven suddenly appear to change sides?

What does the relationship between Danny’s ex-girlfriend Nora(Maria Bello) and her current fiancé(Billy Zane) have to do with any of this? Sal Lopez is great as a chef who briefly doubles as Danny’s assistant, but he’d not in there long enough. Michael Murphy, as Dickie’s Senator father has a brief two minute cameo and why does he get any billing at all? Same with Tim Roth, who should be getting more work.

The propagandistic value of this film is understandable and the acting is great throughout. It’s worth a matinee at least.

Saturday, September 04, 2004

Did you see that TIME magazine poll? It might be due to some extent by the protesters. Backlash, y'know?

The press was ALWAYS conservative. Yeah, Walter Cronkite is a liberal, but if you go back to the age before television, you'll notice that most of the media was owned by people like Hearst and Pulitzer

The simple fact is is that EVERYBODY was here in the City and the lunatic fringe was most visible.

The problem was that Kerry's advisors got him to underplay the swiftboat ads because they were so easilly debunkable, but that wasn't what it was all about. It was about wimpieness, and since he didn't SLAP them down HARD was telling, escpecially after the ultra-macho convention performance.

The bounce will be a bounce. Kerry will be back to being even with Bush by the middle of the week, and the thing will be decided by the debates. If you can find a site, you'll notice how this is like 1980.

Thursday, September 02, 2004

The anticipation is so thick you can cut it with a knife. But then there’s some more music to kill some more time. After all, we’ve got about three minutes to go. There’s a filmed introduction and the man himself comes out. The crowd in the hall goes completely nuts. Screaming "four more years" at the top of their lungs. I can see the back of his head as he accepts the nomination for a second term. He goes on about his job as commander in chief. After the mention of 9/11, he starts talking mush. He loves his wife and daughters and siblings and he rest of the family. I guess that this is part of the usual schtick before he goes into why he should be re-elected. There’s a laundry list of the real and imagined achievements of this administration. So far there isn’t actually very much there. But the crowd loves it. He speaks in revolutionary platitudes. He says that America must be the best place in the world to do business. He gives as a method the standard conservative program. Less taxes and less regulation. He also comes out in favor of energy independence and then moves to ban "frivolous’ lawsuits. He denounces the tax code that was mostly written by Republicans. He’s for job retraining and more aid for community colleges. So how exactly is he going to pay for this? Then he has a plan about potable health insurance. Isn’t that what the Democrats were proposing?

So far he’s been concentrating on domestic issues, and there isn’t all that new here. Everybody’s in favor of affordable housing and decent health care. That he takes credit for a small public school in North Carolina. The Gall!!!

So far he’s focusing solely on education before starting in on Kerry. "We are heading to the future and are not turning back." This is one of the most vacuous speeches I’ve ever heard. He’s saying nothing new at all. Well, that’s conservatism for you….he attacks Kerry for claiming to be a conservative, something I’m certain he never claimed.

He also implies that Kerry won’t defend America…and he will. It’s the same old thing as a protester approaches the podium and gets arrested. It seemed that the crowd was trying to shout the president down. A few more protesters start shouting and are hustled out of the room. The crowd started screaming "Four More Yeasr!!!! Four More Years!!!"

He praises he people of Afghanistan for registering to vote. Elections are scheduled for January in Iraq. "If America gives it’s word, America must keep it’s word." The person next to me says of the protesters: "This is a disaster."

He praise Tony Blair, Burlusconi and John Howard and others. This is going on and on, it’s all very nice, but I don’t think that it’s going to help very much. None of this is new…being conservatives, the crowd loves it…..

It's all the same stuff we've heard before. He finishes with a forgettable flourish and soon Cheney, the wives and kids are out there waving to the crowd as balloons fall from the ceiling as is tradtional at these things.

While the music plays and the dancing on the floor continues, we leave the room and head for the subway. Now the real work begins for Kerry, Bush and company.

So here we are the final night of this godforsaken show, and having managed to snag the last piece of official White House press corps cheesecake. The party was over and they let me have it. So much for the food at the Convention, it wasn’t nearly as good as it was in Boston despite the fact that it’s generally better here.

Now to the program: The first speakers were lightweights and it was a good time to eat cheesecake. Our first major speaker is Tommy Franks, who is an independent and endorses the President, after all as the commanding general during the Afghan and Iraqi battles, and he’s about as responsible as Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney for the progress of the war. Possibly more than them because he was the one who let Osama Bin Laden and pals escape. So at this point, he cannot possibly endorse Kerry at this stage. He’s actually a pretty good speaker. Thus we cannot be sure how much bullshit is being slung.

The crowd is pretty attentive. I cannot see the general speak because I’m in one of the worse seats in the arena, although I’m in the press seating area. They come and check, but it seems no one here is in their proper assigned seats and getting everyone to get up and go would be an impossibility. So I get to be able to see the President make his acceptance speech from a decent angle. It’s in the round and there’s a stage painted to look like the presidential seal.

The former Railroad Commissioner of Texas, an old friend of Bush’s and a black man, gives a touching reminiscence of life back in Midland Texas in the 1980s. There’s a preview of a commercial which is totally information free. Then there’s a singer named Donnie McClerken, who’s does some mediocre and uninspired gospel music. Well, it’s a way to kill time before we go on the air and Dubya makes his big speech.

There’s some mre music and a guy named Martinez, a Cuban who’s running for the US senate, and a former secretary of something gives a speech in which he says how awful Castro was and how wonderful the US is. Having been to Cuba I can sympathize. But then he goes into the same tired spiel that we’ve been hearing all week.

We’ve got less than a half hour until the President’s address. The guy who’s going to introduce him is George Pataki, the governor of New York, who thanks the Oregon delegation for keeping the New York tourism industry going and the Iowa delegation for sending blankets for the firefighters for ground zero. He talks about what happened here on 9/11. The people in the Republican party hated this city until that day. I guess Pataki is right to thank the rest of the country for the response to 9/11. But then he goes to the usual bullshit and a few cheap jokes…he then defends the War in Iraq, and the crowd goes wild.

This is a convention, and conventions have huckster rooms. That's where people in comic book conventions buy comic books and trekkies buy Spock ears and such.

So the Hilton is host to the Republican suvenier festival where you can get all sorts of stuff from Republcian commemerative water to books on the presidents of the continental congress to about six different vendor of campaign buttons. This is a great place for a political junkie to blow a few bucks. Unfortunately, they don't have any buttons or bumperstickers with any of the potential 2008 contenders.

Then there's the free "spa" which is run by Barney's. The thing is rather pathetic, although the barbers and hairdressers are most likely first rate. The waiting list is HUGE. I guess I'll have to go somewhere else...

So here I am at what's called "radio row" where everybody who's anybody in the talk radio biz is supposed to be at this time in the afternoon.

I had problems getting in. They asked for extra ID, which I had left at home since nobody ever asked for it before. They searched my bag and then searched it again, and looked at my legitimately obtained credentials repeatedly. They asked me if I was going to start a disruption. I said no of course, but why would they ask such a stupid question? Were they expecting someone to say "Sure! I"m going to start a riot all by my widdle self!" jess!!!!

Finally, after waiting for what seemed forever, I was finally permitted to go through the metal detector and do the whole thing all over again. I went over to the blockers bench, and security told me that since I'm not a "real blocker" I would have to leave. I told her that I was going to tell the world how mean she was being and she told me not to. I don't care. I'm going to do it anyway. The White House press corps is going to have a special luncheon and nobody's allowed to go except them what good it that then? I demand free roast beef!!!

This is all because that $%^& Bush is coming into the hall. I can see some security, but this is ridiculous!

Al Franken is about twelve feet away from me and at the moment is drinking some bottled water while discussing the latest disheartening poll results. Rasmussen has Kerry down by four after being tied with Bush yesterday. Millers speech had it's effect. We'll see what's going on later.

Zell Miller breathes fire. He started out saying that in the past there was bipartisanship, but then the republicans have been been firmly against bipartisanship for years and years and years. He lists every single weapons system that the US ever bought and claims that Kerry was against all of them. The problem is that some of them were funded when Kerry was Lt. Governor of Massachusetts or even before. The substance was a load of crap, but BOY! What delivery!!!

The Second Lady of the Land gives her husband, the Vice President of these United States a rousing introduction. Then comes the Veep...

Cheney wasn't nearly as bad as expected. He attacks both Kerry and Edwards and goes on and on about the both real and imagined triumphs of the Bush administration. It's more than watchable but not as riveting as Miller's was.

From the convention I head south to the "Billionaires for Bush" party on pier 60, 23rd and the river. The Klasmatics or some other band plays strange Jazz and everyone dances with wild abandon. We get home around a quarter of two in the morning...oog.

I tried to get a better seat and couldn't actually get one, so now I'm sitting in front of the Larry King set, where he and Disney President George Mitchell while they're watching a video tribute to Ronald Reagan, who's the second patron saint of the party. King seems as bored as Mitchell, although the video is rather well done. They then give out information on how to buy a copy, which is something that they haven't done before. I don't think that they've put that on CNN or Fox.

Then they do disco. I'm not sure why. There are lots of ways to kill time until the broadcast networks start their coverage. King interviews his panel, but you can't hear what he's saying as the music's so loud. The next speaker up is the Lt. Governor of Massachusetts, Kerry had the job under Dukakis, and then they start attacking the Duke. Then they go after Kerry, using the L-word a number of times before going into a commercial for Gov. Mitt Romney, who's next on the list. Romney hasn't been that an effective governor. With the geographical credentials in place, Romney goes after Kerry, cracking exactly one good joke, "we don't need leadership in 57 varieties." Then he goes on to attack gay marriage.

Larry King doesn't seem to be listening. We've got about fifteen minutes before Cheney steps up to the plate...or rather Zell Miller, as I just found out he comes first

Well, here we are at the press section of the convention and the delegates have just made Bush's nomination, which was every single one of the 2508 eligible votes, unanimous, and there was a bit of a dance before the appointment of committee to inform him of what he already knows. This was followed by the nomination of Dick Cheney for vice president. This is by voice vote, as there was a rules change in 1988 in order to stop an anti-Dan Quayle revolt and an extra roll call is a waste of time.

So, the work of the convention is hereby done. Cheney is going to accept the nomination later tonight, and that speech is going to be extremely important in stopping Kerry if that is possible...and it is. But so far nothing much has actually happened. The networks have yet to actually start broadcasting. They're too smart for that. There's no need to broadcast what's already a done deal.

There's really nothing to do until either Zell Miller or the Vice President make their speeches later on in the evening. However, Secretary of Labor Elaine Chou takes the podium after her husband, the state's senior senator, gives her a rousing introduction. She gives an autobiographical sketch which is actually pretty silly in parts. The crowd begins to mill around and most of the delegates begin to ignore her. This is going to be pretty much the state of affairs until around nine or nine thirty.

\"It is the story of this country that people have been able to dream big dreams with confidence they would come true, if not for themselves, then for their children and grandchildren. And that sense of boundless opportunity is a gift that we must pass on to all who come after us.\"

The Vice President on the greatest challenge of our time:

\"These have been years of achievement, and we are eager for the work ahead. And in all that we do, we will never lose sight of the greatest challenge of our time: preserving the freedom and security of this nation against determined enemies.\"

The Vice President on the stakes of this election:

\"In this election, we will decide who leads our country for the next four years. Yet, there is more in the balance than that. Moments come along in history when leaders must make fundamental decisions about how to confront a long term challenge abroad and how best to keep the American people secure. This nation has reached another of those defining moments.\"

The Vice President on the sharp contrast between the President and Senator Kerry:

\"And on the question of America\'s role in the world, the differences between Senator Kerry and President Bush are the sharpest, and the stakes for the country are the highest.\"

The Vice President on President Bush's vision for a safer world and a more hopeful America:

\"The historian Bernard DeVoto once wrote that when America was created, the stars must have danced in the sky. Our President understands the miracle of this great country. He knows the hope that drives it and shares the optimism that has long been so important a part of our national character. He gets up each and every day determined to keep our great nation safe so that generations to come will know the freedom and opportunities we have known - and more.\"

After the daily press briefing...a bunch of demonstrable lies from the Secretary of Commerce and a number of Governors such as Pataki and Taft, I attended the very beginning of the Youth Convention. Now I had a lunch date on ninth avenue with an extremely pretty journalist who..well you know...anyway...

It seems just after I left a bunch of protesters took off their tee shirts and began to start protesting the convention. A micro-riot ensued while I was waiting at the wrong diner. We finally got together, but had our wires not been crossed she would have seen the whole thing with me. Bummer.

Tuesday, August 31, 2004

I somehow got stuck in some of the best seats in the house. The place is packed. Bill Frist, the senate majority leader is giving a speech on the subject of health insurance. He denounced John Edwards as a preditor and and attacks Kerry again and again about the damage that the raising of malpractice insurance rates has hurt the industry. Edwards will have to respond to that, and no doubt he could do it.

A "CJ" interviews a couple of delegates and the then someone else starts speaking. Something has happened to the sound system and you can't really hear what she is saying. Right now I'm sitting next to A delegate from Virginia and who gave his credentials to an alternate and he's a lawyer who's doing some malpractice cases..he here to lobby some of the senators who are considering the judicial nominations in his state. The secretary of education is speaking, and as far as I know he's the only one in the cabinet who's speaking at the convention this year. I've got a really good view of the presidential box, where Bush sr and his family are watching the show. I can't really hear a thing as the delegates are talking about trading credentials and getting on the floor. I've done it once already and I guess I don't have to do it again, especially as I have a really good views of the arena.

The guy next to me and I discuss frivolous lawsuits and what it's done to West Virginia, there seem to be no doctors left in the state. We also talk about travel and how to get around the city. He's actually a very nice guy for a Republican.

Some other people talk and we seem to notice how bad the acustics are. We either can't hear all that well, or what's being said is soo boring that we can't really listen properly. The Leutenant Governor of Maryland denounces the Democrats and the crowd eats it up. Everyone's waiting for the main event....the governator.

He's not a particulary good speaker, but he gets a lot of applause as he calls the Democrats "girlie men." He gets a standing ovation when he mentioned Richard Nixon, the first time I heard his name mentioned in Decades at one of these things. The guy sitting next to me reminds me to mention that it was what Nixon stood for that was being applauded for, not the man himself. In deference to him I'll do it, but I don't believe it for a minute. Arnie spoke for the better part of an hour and the hall was ecstatic. As Arnie left with the sound of thuderous applause in his ears, so did I.

Right now, I'm at the first debate of the fall campaign, David Cobb of the Greens and Michael Badnarik of the Libertarians, they're on the opposite sides of the spectrum. Since they're not anywhere near getting elected, they get to take positions on such weird issues as constitutional amendments and whether or not to get rid of social security. Badnarik is for privitizing social security and Cobb thinks that's dumb, although he says it isn't just for the rich, although it is, he says, being looted by same.

He's for more government spending, although...

Niether like the current system. They like the French system, and instant runoff voting, much like Ireland and proportional representation something like Israel or Italy. The Libertarians damand to be in the big TV debates with Kerry and Bush, and who can blame them?..Now to go back to the con and have dinner....

Someone got arrested about an hour ago in Union Square park. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but someone allegedly did something to a member of the media and got arrested. The way to the park was blocked and I had to get in elsewhere.

After trying to get a damn wai fi signal that I could get and not being able to I went down to the southern end of the park, where there was a rally of about five or six hundred people. Most of them were regular people who had nothing better to do and wanted to relive the sixties. Nothing wrong with that, then there were the hawkers, most of whom were communists.

Now I know what you're gonna say. "C'mon! These people aren't Communists. Stop calling them that!"

Well, they actually are. The Worker's World party, who were handing out newspapers, were a faction of the Socialist Worker's Party who split back in the 1950s in order to support the Soviet Invasion of Hungary. Then there's the Communist Revolutionary Front, you can't say they're not communists can you? Then there's the people selling copies of the "Revolutionary Worker," Who are part of the Revolutionary Communist party. They were also giving out flyers for "Revolution" a film of a lecture by Bov Avakian, who considers himself America's very own Chairman Mao. The group keeps body and soul together by the fact that their Revolution bookshop has done good business for years and years.

Then there's a couple of people giving out copies of the Daily World, put out by...you guessed it!!!...
The Communist party USA. The same people who gave us Gus Hall and William Z. Foster. You can't say THEY'RE not communists can you...

Well then there's the various Trot groups and to the right of them there's the various pseudo-anarchist groups just selling souvenirs. Many of the people in the crowd were just Democrats and Republicans with a few dozen police looking very menacing on motorbikes.

However most of the people here are just locals and passersby who want to look at that show called history. There are women selling tee shirts that have pictures of Wonder Woman and the slogan: Reign in the Cowboys" and Lictensteineque pictures of a woman thinking "I forgot to vote, now Bush is reelected for four years."

A dance troupe tries to excorsize the Republicans through music. The draw in quite a crowd. So far there is no parade. It's all very cute....

So we're back on the far west side, where the progressive bloggers are now getting ready to observe the pregame show on a projected screen TV. The place is packed to the gills...at least the wai fi works...tonight they're going to have the governator speak. That should be a hoot...I hope I'm still awake for that...

Right now I’m at the "progressive tourist bureau" which is one of the places where the anti-RNC bloggers are supposed to hang out. The reason I’m here is that I went to "blogger’s alley" in the Garden, but while they had room, they wouldn’t let me use the ethernet cable for half a minute. So I went up here.

Now, nothing much is happening this afternoon. The A31 protests are just going to start "spontaneously" around four. The main points of departure are Union Square and the
main branch of the Library on 40th and fifth.

At the same time as that is the first debate, which will take place at the Sts. Cyral and Methodus church at five or six in the evening. The presidential candidates of the Green and Libertarian parties are going to attend, but Nader and the "real" candidates won’t.

They towed all the cars from my street, this presages another demonstration raging along my street. We’re going to be more diligent today, as I’ve decided to unplug my laptop from my printer and a dozen other appliances and head up to the Garden where they’re going to have the morning press conference. Today’s special guest: The Secretary of Education. I’ve brought my friend and associate Bob, no relation to my cousin Bob or the guy from the NBR who kicked me out of that formerly august organization. But that’s neither here nor there. What is is that when we got here they had pro-wrestling on the giant plasma screens on either side of the podium.

As they do the sound checks, the channel is changed and the default picture is now on the screen. The speakers have shown up and everyone is just sitting there waiting for a critical mass of people to show up. Either that or they’re following some arcane tradition…they’re having problems with the telephone hookup. Ron Paige, our hose apologizes for the delay.

The theme of the day is "compassion" which means that they’re going to be as hypocritical as possible. This afternoon, each of the 55 delegations will do charity work to show that they’re not all greedy shits. Tonight, it’s expected that Bush is going to be denominated.

The Secretary of Education says that we’re on a hinge time, and he’s right, but he’s discussing his portfolio. Rudman and Hart’s 2001 report that education is a national security issue. He says that we need a new approach to education. "This is no time for us to go to sleep on education." True enough, but so far that he’s have no idea what to do about it. He says there’s a crisis. But he says nothing about what the administration’s going to do about it.

A reporter says the podium at the convention looks too much like a pulpit and it looks like two crosses. Hmmmmmmmmmmm……

A question is asked to the Secretary about the status of the "No Child Left Behind" act.
He claims that several think tanks say that funding for it is on target.

The second session of the RNC was for the most part rather boring. The reason for this was mostly that the good speeches started rather later than they were supposed to and the tributes and "rolling roll call" tended to make one's eyes begin to feel heavy.

The two "real" speeches, I'm gave up and went home and watched McCain on TV, were far more partisan than they were in Boston. I didn't like Hastert's speech at all, McCain was far better. I couldn't take it anymore so I went to bed and woke up ten hour later. I missed Guliani entirely. There's a clip of it at AOL, but they won't let us with Macs see it. Damn them!!!!

If there's a riot, it's going to happen today. The A31 coalition is planning it's "takover of the convention this evening and it might indeed get hairy. In the meantime, I'm going to get more coffee....

Monday, August 30, 2004

I missed it. I was at the Republican Convention, so I missed it. The big protest March was rerouted at the last minute and fifty to seventy thousand people marched in front of my apartment building. I saw the tail end of it while getting out of the subway. The sanitation department was right there cleaning up the mess from the streets. The homeless handyman who lives on our block said, "I’ve never seen anything like it." Damn!!!

But that was later…

Let’s flashback to this morning, getting off the subway at half past eight in the A.M, where we find the entire area around 8th avenue blocked off. I had no trouble getting in, they borrowed some security people from the airports and it was a breeze. After picking up some magazines, I headed over the bridge to the Garden, this after going through another metal detector, there we went directly to the press conference area, and the guy who was police commissioner on 9/11 gave a statement on the security situation, which was, he said, much better than prior to the notorious attack.

Someone asked about when Cheney was going to be nominated and the briefer didn’t know. So with obfuscation fuzzified like never before, we the press scattered to the winds.

I first went to the radio row section, which is always one of the best sections of these events. You get to see celebrities and stuff! I saw G. Gordan Liddy sitting there with a shiteating grin on his face. Then some people I know from Pacifica radio.

Finally, I went to the Bloggers area. Being one myself, I figured that I should find out why I couldn’t get one of those cool buttons they were wearing. No one had an answer, but they were all very nice and full of good tips as to fixing my screwed up software problems. This despite the fact that their aethernet connections weren’t yet working.

When last I checked they were working at last.

Finally, I went up to the seventh floor and headed out to the bleachers to find my seat. It was the very worst one in the entire arena. Fortunately, the place wasn’t that full, so I just sat down in front of a good view, where I watched Ed Koch give a really mediocre speech as to why he was supporting a guy with whom he disagreed about everything.

"Why am I here?" He asked. "To convert You!!!!" If only he were.

This was in fact a double introduction. First he introduced a short film about how wonderful New York is, then he introduced Mayor Bloomberg, the only Billionaire for Bush who’s not joking when he says that. His speech was genuinely awful. He, and quite a few other of the speakers invoked Lincoln, as if the fact that Dixiecrats and neo-confederates hadn’t taken over the party decades ago never happened.

The Co-chair of the party, who’s name I don’t remember told some inspirational stories about some of the volunteers at the convention. There was one that got me teary-eyed.

There was this little girl named Rita, or at least I think that’s what her name was. She had been in a hurrendous car wreck and was undergoing surgery to save her life, when her lung suddenly collapsed. It turned out she had a tumor growing between the lung and her heart. Of course the doctors cut it out immediately, and she’s on the mend, but even though she’s very week she insisted on coming to New York. "I have to help President Bush get re-elected!" she said. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww……

Then in came Dick Cheney himself. The crowd didn’t exactly go nuts, but there was a lack of restraint. He was there for a very specific reason. The nominations!

Nominating speeches are a grand tradition in the history of political conventions. Some of the greatest oratory in the history of the english language could be found in them. But not this time. They just had a guy from Ohio give a thirty second speech from the floor. The nominating speech for Cheney for Veep was even shorter.

Then the first part of the roll call of the states began. The Republicans, with no opposition to the pre-selected candidate, have decided to cut the voting into little pieces part this afternoon, part tonight and part tomarrow. One wonders what would happen if there was a deadlock….

So when that ended I left. Then I got out of the train and saw the protesters leaving my street. I need a nap.

The Bush twins were a waste of time. There we were waiting in the back when it turns out they arrived in the front. I applied for credentials to get in but my name wasn't on the list and everybody was on the wrong side.

So much for that. I also attended a speech by Congressman Rob Simmons of Connecticutt at the forum for a Republican Majority, which is the leftist fringe of the party. He gave a good speech on how the Republicans, in the old days, were in fact rather progressive on some issued. But that was a century ago and before the Dixiecrats took over. Still they gave out free sodas....

Sunday, August 29, 2004

So around eleven I ventured out of my apartment and down the street where the crowd was gathering. While almost no one was on the west side of the street, the east side venues were beginning to fill up. Little girls holding signs chanted anti-Bush cheers while grownup protesters coo-ed "aren’t they cute. The Communists were out in force, selling books and tee shirts while people dressed in their Sunday best, so to speak. There was a platform on 17th street, where a few speakers gave short addresses to the crowd. Screams went up as if people were doing the "wave" at a sports arena. I went west on 17th to see if the western venues were beginning to fill up. They weren’t So I headed up eighth avenue until I hit 23rd street and headed east to join the throng, which had finally begun to move.

Up we went through the 20s and then around 30th street, we began to see resistance. Not much, but we couldn’t go on the sidewalk any more. Madison Square Garden was in view, and people stopped to chant and get a good view of the ediface, where the marquee had an animated "thank you New York" doing a dance on the screen. What did it mean exactly, who in the city were they thanking? The Republicans? The protesters? What?

The way north was blocked, and thus he had to head east along 34th where we were to go before heading south on Fifth avenue and Union square park where we were supposed to disperse. There was a long line at a Sbarro’s restaurant by people who had to go to the john. The sign said "customers only" but who was gonna stop us? We had to go and this is a protest march, right? So we headed south, and when we got to Union square, the protestors, like good little boys and girls, dispersed.

Oh, yeah. The best stickers read: "Republicans for Vordmort." Harry Potter would be proud!!!!

The march was a success. After all, while they didn’t get the quarter million advertised, they came quite close. That’s impressive. It was hot and sticky and I really needed a nap and a shower. There’s the official broadway plays and receptions for the delegates at five and an anti-convention barbecue at six….

So, I managed to get my credentials with no problems whatsoever, although the combination of what exactly is needed to get where is still a bit fuzzy. There is one outside credential for each day and one each for the Farley building and MSG. I think. I don't know if the MSG tickets are good for the Farley building or not or whether you need MSG tickets PLUS the limited access tickets in order to get into the Farley building...I'll find out this afternoon.

Meanwhile...

It's eight minutes after the assembly time begun. I'm sitting in my office blogging away while looking out the window. There's crowds on seventh avenue, but not that many people in front of me. One group is in it's assigned space while everyone else is just walking on by heading for their usual Sunday haunts or where the action seems to be.

things may change in an hour or so, or were my warnings all for naught? Will there be a siege? The leader of the Republican youth brigade was addressing his troops up at the Pennsylvania hotel, telling everyone not to be negative. It's eerily quiet, which I guess is a good thing.

Lulu works for the Oxygen network, so since she had press credentials, I called her up and asked if she wanted to go to the official press soiree at the Time-Warner mall on Columbus Circle, that’s 59th and 8th for all those of you who’re not residents of my fair city… much to my surprise she said yes. Proving once again that everyone has their price.

Now the Time-Warner center was built on the site of the Coliseum convention arena, which had closed down back in the ‘80s and just stood there empty for decades while people fought over what to do with the site. They even opened it again a number of times because it was possible that nothing would ever be built there.

But Donald Trump managed to finally get the thing built. It’s huge, and has a borders bookshop, a few dozen chi-chi stores and a very chi-chi supermarket in the basement.

…so was it the perfect place for the opening press reception? No. The mall is a mall. There are places to hang out, sure, but for the most part the halls between the stores are hall between the stores and aren’t a very good place to have buffets.

The two of us got through the security without any problems whatsoever and were met with some people dressed in orange tee shirts decorated with quaint Big Apple phraseology such as "center of the universe" or "forgeddaboutit" who served us white wine or something with vodka in it. This was a perfect place for celebrity watching. We saw Larry King and Judy Woodruff looking very stately and saw Mayor Bloomberg glad-handing those who outranked us in the cosmic pecking order.

The food wasn’t all that good. Not that is was BAD goodness knows, but the simple fact is there was nowhere to sit, the portions were TINY[glorified h'orderves] and while some of them were quite tasty, this is not anywhere as filling as it’s counterpart in Boston a month ago, or the party on the Navy pier in Chicago in ’96, or the one here in New York four years before that.

But the scenery was quite nice and booze flowed freely and all had a good time. Now for the hard part…

Saturday, August 28, 2004

The anti-convention is beginning to pick up steam. I went to Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn for the "March For Women’s Lives" sponsored by Planned Parenthood. It basically started like pretty much everything else of this type, with some speeches and music. This part was mostly inoffensive except for one of the chants, which went "racist sexist anti-gay! Born again Christians GO AWAYYYYYYYYY!!!"

If they specifically mentioned Jews or Moslems, there’d be hell to pay, of course, but I guess they didn’t think there’d be any born-agains in the crowd.

I dunno. Maybe there weren’t.

Well, we did see a few roped off when we crossed the bridge into Manhattan. About two dozen antichoice protesters showing pictures of dissociated dead fetuses, nobody was really looking as the temperature was getting really hot and the sight of port-0-potties in the distance began to quicken the pace of the over ten thousand marchers heading for the second rally in City Hall park. As the first speech began, I decided to head off for my next rally….

Now this was really pathetic. After seeing thousands and thousands of people on the Brooklyn/Manhattan border, the mere two hundred or less listening to the speakers for the Green party was, well, dissapointing in the extreme. Green Presidential Nominee David Cobb spoke, but nobody seemed to be listening. I mean, when your own supporters aren’t enthused AND your a fringe party candidate, you’ve got major problems.

There were mostly people with tables selling buttons, stickers and tee shirts, ranging from the extremely good "Thinking is Patriotic" and "What would NIXON do?" to the moronic "Fight the illuminati" and Vote [swastika] Republican. As the temperature began to hit the uppermost 80s, I decided to head off in search of air conditioning. This evening, we’re going to the swanky press welcoming reception, which is going to be fun in a different way.

The events are coming thick and fast now. While about a hundred bikers were arrested for blocking traffic right near my house yesterday evening, I went down to Staten Island in order to see a group of people calling themselves "Green Dragon" doing some peaceful street theater on the ferry.

We got on the ferry at 1:30 or so and headed down NY harbor were we met up with a huge amount of press and a dozen or so protesters decked out in faux 18th century costume. They read a proclamation then everyone boarded the same ferry we came on and soon everyone involved was at the front of the boat where another proclamation was read and songs sung. The protesters then went to the port side of the boat and saluted the Statue of Liberty before marching around the boat again. We docked at the terminal and followed the procession back onto dry land where another group calling itself "Billionaires for Bush" was waiting for us. They’re just as left as Green Dragon but like to dress in formalwear and spout faux Republican slogans.

They were all "captured" and loosely tied up, and the whole band, followed by a couple of dozen reporters, marched up to Frauces’ Tavern, where everybody bought a beer and sang some more songs. Fun was had by all and no one was arrested.

The floor of the convention itself is just about ready. It’s built on a platform about nine feet from the ground where there are about ten thousand miles of wires and hydraulic lifts. The latter is for the entertainers between speeches, who are going to come up from underground and do their thing while the commercials are being played on the tube. Also the "CJ’s" are going to interview people. One could see where the balloons are being stored from the floor.

I’m not exactly sure what the Republicans are doing at the today, but the anti-Republicans are going to be all over the place. Planned Parenthood is going to have a march at eleven over the Brooklyn bride at eleven and then there’s some marches in the east village plus the unconvention at 7p o Warsaw, 261 Driggs Ave, Brooklyn

…plus, there’s the Seven-day program NY 9/11 TRUTH CONVERGENCE SPACE At The Brecht Forum Manhattan 122 West 27th Street, 10th Floor (between 6th & 7th Ave.) This is supposed to be some whacked out conspiracy theories blaming anyone but Bin Laden. Take the 1/9 & N/R subway to 28th St. D/B/F to 34th St. . Tel. 212.242.4201.

There’s also some stuff at St. Mark’s Church 131 E. 11th street.
Go here for more info;
http://www.rncguide.com/calendar/august27.shtml

Friday, August 27, 2004

I missed the streaking incident yesterday morning, but I went to the kangaroo court at the Martin Luther King High School on west 65th street. It was what I expected. Accusing Bush of violating nonextistant international law and attacking the US for being the only fount of evil in the entire world save Israel. One of the guys giving a workshop couldn't even ADD. He said that this year marked the 100th (!) anniversary of the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Ed ruling. Fancy that.

I heckled a bit and was asked not too.

"This is a private teach-in" I was told.
"I thought it was a public tribunal" I replied.
He didn't say anything back.

The kangaroo court gave it's findings, to no one's surprise, Bush was found guilty of violating a statute that they had written themselves. [to be fair, that was the Japanese branch, I was so disgusted I left before it was over].

This morning, I took some colleges to the floor of the RNC in MSG for a press conference. This was to be told about the in-house entertainment between the major speeches. Five picturesque "Cee Jays" will interview delegates and discuss trivia with the delegates and be shown on the con's big screen TV. Soon I'll go back and see the balloons...Or not.

Thursday, August 26, 2004

The first march is this afternoon. Things are beginning to get busy. Good. The Convention press office is open for business already and the anti-convention press office will open officially tomorrow.

I took a look-see at the construction inside the ‘Garden. It wasn’t nearly as finished as I expected it would be. I got to stand on the stage and everything. Getting into the Farley building is going to be a real pain. The anti-convention digs are easier to get too, but not much. You have to get through several security posts as well. I guess it’s to keep the FBI and Protest Warriors out. Who know?

Monday, August 23, 2004

So the circus is coming to town at last! The congressional press office has opened up it’s RNC branch at the Hotel Pennsylvania and while they didn’t have any actual credentials to give out [we get them on Thursday], the guy in charge did indeed have something to give away. The official goody pack!

The official goody pack contains: One official tote bag with the RNC logo on one side and New Balance, don’t ask me what the hell that is, on the other. Within this tote bag is:

Three guidebooks
Official RNC commemorative Macaroni and Cheese
A copy of "Miffy Goes to New York" ["My Pet Goat" would seem goash at this stage]
A phone card with an hour’s worth of time on it
A disposable camera curtesy of B&H photos
RNC commemorative M&Ms
A pedometer
A Con Ed key chain
Dunkin Donuts coffee

This is the press pack, the delegates and alternates get slightly better ones and the high rollers get valuable prizes. The GOP’s firs official press conference of the Convention is tomarrow. There is also some other stuff which will be revealed tomarrow.

The polls were done for the most part simultaniously. I think that this debunks the myth that says whoever's ahead Labor Day will win the election. Gore was ahead on Labor day as wel...oh, yeah....he WON the election.

Some other polls that were really wrong were the last ones in 1980, they all showed Carter ahead or Reagan with a tiny lead. Then there was 1936, when the Literary Digest had a poll showing Alf Landon ahead of Franklin Roosevelt, and remember President Dewey....

Saturday, August 21, 2004

Yesterday I discovered that the Indymedia people were handing out thecredentials for those who reserved space in their "alternative press room"on Church street, it was at their "infoshop" in a gigantic art space calledthe "Gigantic Art Space" (GAS). They were very nice, although they couldn’tget their machine to work. I plan to try again today. From there we tookthe #6 train up to Hunter college where the opening event of what the NewYork Post calls "the anarchists’ war council," the "Life After Capitalism"confrence.

The place was packed. It cost ten bucks to get in, which being part of the [non-corporate] press I didn’t have to pay. The reason forthe cost is because Hunter demanded they get three million in insurance incase the place was raided or something. They called it extortion, and itprobably was to some extent. These are dangerous times, after all.

SoI came down to the front of the theater and prepared to treat myself to a feast of interplanetary cosmic bullshit. I was not to be disappointed. Not in the least.

Webegan with our moderators giving an enthusiastic welcome to the audience.I never actually caught their names, but one was a really hot honey wearinga small slip of a dress and lots of hair and a fat black guy in a tee shirtand jeans. They gave a cute spiel quoting Zapatista leader "subcommandante Marcos" before our first speaker was to take the stage. actually, it wasn’ta speaker at all, but a trailer for a propaganda documentary called "The Fourth World War" which showed groups of demonstrators from all over theworld overwhelming the army of whatever country they were in at the time.This included a shot of the victorious Palestinians running for dear lifefrom an unseen Israeli army. Was it because the front lines had Arabs shooting first and ruining the message? Probably.

It also had some footageof the chaos that was Argentina when the economy collapsed and they had sixpresidents in two weeks. They said capitalism was finished there, but ofcourse it isn’t. Incompetence is incompetence. Be that as it may, this proved nothing.

But this false impression and it’s message of "if you dance enough, they will fold" was rather powerful. The audience ate it up.

Thenour hosts gave a poetry reading, followed by a commercial for one of theplanned marches, the person, a twenty something Asian lady, mentions something about this being war right here in New York City. This was to be the generalpattern of what can only be called a pep rally.

Our first real speakerwas an Indian American [as opposed to American Indian] named Varje Parshad,who is the first to use the f-word: fascism. He says that the American regimeis "friendly fascism" and called Kerry a fascist, but since he lives in aswing state, he’ll vote for anyway. He also advocates the s-word, socialism.The mask is off, although it never was really on. What he talks about strategyand why the movement should in the future begin to concentrate on taking over local governments before getting more ambitious. He was actually a pretty good speaker. I was surprized.

This was followed by another commercial,this time for United For Peace and Justice, who’s having that huge lawsuit over whether to use Central Park for their big rally A week from tomorrow.The world would be such a better place if we join them in front of my friggen’window.

The second featured speaker was one Michael Albert, one ofthe top honchos of "Z" magazine, one of the top ultra-lefty journals. NowHE was clueless. The speech began in a rather cute way, in which he describes a thing in which people wither and eventually die and calls for a movementto ban…aging! Of course he says, that’s ridiculous, as would a movement toban gravity. Then with the humor part over, he compares it with the problemsof AIDS and poverty, and goes on to describe his version of a socialist utopia.That was expected. But then he begins to wonder our loud why the movement isn’t what he calls "sticky." Complaining that if everybody who had flirted with the far left has "stayed the course" there would be a movement fifty million strong at least. He admits to being in his late fifties. Is he really THAT naïve after all these years? After giving it the old college try, heyields the floor to our hosts to give it to two rappers from "And still we rise" who are sponsoring the march on Monday.

Then the A21 committeemakes it’s pitch. They’re the ones who are going to try to "A radical 31st,two days before the renomination of George W. Bush, we are calling for aday of non-violent civil disobedience and direct action." If there’s goingto be a genuine riot, it’s going to be then. Then some organizers are givena chance to take a bow.

This is followed by a speech by Niomi Klein,who rote a book called "No Logo" which is considered to be a bible of the movement. She thanks everybody who deserved to be thanked and then goes onto the real business of the talk. She praises Mr. Sadr and he people in Iraq,denouncing the American soldiers for desecrating Moslem holy places" before obliquely coming out in favor of Saddam’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait. She callsfor REVOLUTION both here and there.

I’m sure the undercover cops in the audience were taking copious notes at this point.

Aftershe was finished denouncing both Kerry and "those retired hippies who wantus to behave ourselves," our hosts introduced two kids who read an excerpt from a thing called the "Liberation Charter" which basically denounces everything the US stands for and calls for it’s destruction. This is followed by ourlast major speaker, one Robert Kelly.

Kelly’s thesis was that therewere too many whites in the movement and thus they couldn’t get enough solidarity for people of color and smaller projects that would allegedly help same."Protests alone can’t deliver…" he says. At least someone gets something right.

With the pep rally over, the conference will start today.I’m not going to today’s session as there’s too much else to do [laundry,anyone?] There’s some minor activities, like the Howl festival, which has nothing to do with the RNC and some anti-Bush art openings.

Friday, August 20, 2004

It’s started. The day before yesterday there was something called a "war profiteers tour" of New York, where some of the local lefties showed off where they had protests in the past. It was mostly office buildings where members of the group would read a text explaining how the company who’s offices were there were EVIL and the like. We were escorted by the cops, who in fact turned out to be very helpful, even stopping traffic on 40th street in order to let us finish crossing Park Avenue. It was silly and kind’a fun and this is the sort of thing that they claim the next two weeks are going to be like.

However, the No RNC clearinghouse had a slightly different message. They had a pre-meeting cheering session and they talked about "breaking heads." But I’m sure that’s only rhetoric. I had to leave early for a screening of the "Exorcist" prequel.

Be that as it may, there was lots of information to be had, such as events and the like and that includes the marches. Lots and lots and lots of marches, tying up traffic and causing massive disruptions on top of what the Republicans are already inflicting.

It’s started. The day before yesterday there was something called a "war profiteers tour" of New York, where some of the local lefties showed off where they had protests in the past. It was mostly office buildings where members of the group would read a text explaining how the company who’s offices were there were EVIL and the like. We were escorted by the cops, who in fact turned out to be very helpful, even stopping traffic on 40th street in order to let us finish crossing Park Avenue. It was silly and kind’a fun and this is the sort of thing that they claim the next two weeks are going to be like.

However, the No RNC clearinghouse had a slightly different message. They had a pre-meeting cheering session and they talked about "breaking heads." But I’m sure that’s only rhetoric. I had to leave early for a screening of the "Exorcist" prequel.

Be that as it may, there was lots of information to be had, such as events and the like and that includes the marches. Lots and lots and lots of marches, tying up traffic and causing massive disruptions on top of what the Republicans are already inflicting.

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Uncovered: The War On Ira/q
Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism

Both Directed by
Robert Greenwald

MoveOn.com was founded during the Monica crisis in order to get the country to do what it’s name said. Move on. It wanted Congress to censure then-President Bill Clinton for the crime of…well, you know….it almost went out of business, and had Al Gore managed to officially win Florida it would have.

But as we all know, that didn’t happen and MoveOn.com went ahead with a new purpose: Bringing back democracy to the United States and bringing down the semi-legitimate Bush administration.. So far so good.

We’re in an election year, and as a "571" exemption organization to the McCain-Feingold law, it’s main job is as a propaganda organization, producing commercials and documentaries. For two of them, they hired Robert Greenwald, who’s an old hand at this (he did a really good biopic on the life of Abbe Hoffman a few years back), to create some propaganda films.

With the success of Michael Moore’s "Fahrenheit 911" It’s been decided that instead of having them sent out on DVD and shown in private homes, these will come out in theaters as well and maybe make some of their money back as a plus.

The concept of "objectivity" in journalism is relatively new. Prior to the 1950s and TV’s evening news, the only real objectivity in journalism was in the sports scores. If the Yanks beat the Red Sox 7 to 2 how could any newspaper say otherwise? [Commentary is something else, a few years back, one Japanese TV network had two commentators for sports broadcasts, one rooting for each team]

Slightly over a century ago, the US got into what’s known as the Spanish-American War primarily in order to sell newspapers. You look anywhere in the world and you’ll find that only a few newspapers are truly objective and most of them are here in the ’States. Which brings us to Greenway’s first film: "Outfoxed."

The only real lie Rupert Murdoch told about Fox is that it would be fair and balanced. It’s not and never has been. It has an agenda, it’s conservative, and when it covers such things as hurricanes or the sex lives of pop divas, it’s rather good. However, that’s not what Greenway and the people of MoveOn.com are so angry at. What they’re angry at is that Fox hasn’t been put out of business by government action.

There’s little that’s revelatory. There’s the thing about the memo of the day directing the path of coverage and how Ronald Reagan’s birthday was deliberately overplayed. How the left isn’t allowed to go as over the top as the conservatives are. But so what? Everyone knows what Fox is. That’s why they’re as popular as they are.

Also, they’re on CABLE. That means they don’t have to deal with the FCC.
If you don’t like Fox change the channel to MSNBC, CNN or CBC Newsworld [which is available here in New York] We don’t need to "stop" them.

Greenway’s second opus for MoveOn is "Uncovered" which is a bunch of military experts going on how the Bush administration "lied" about the situation in Iraq in order to invade. Here nothing is revelatory either. We botched the occupation. Horrible but true. We were never going to get any support from France and Germany anyway or from any of the Islamic countries. We alienated pretty much everyone by insisting on striking back after 9/11. The world press was against us by Sept. 15th.

The film is propaganda. It’s not supposed to be fair and balanced. The people who’ve made this film want America to vote for Kerry in the fall. I will, but don’t try to say that these films have anything to do with objective truth….